[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Zhao08.jpg” caption=”Weian Zhao won an honourable mention at the NSERC Innovation Challenge Awards. Photo courtesy of Sheldon Smart.”]A microscopic amount of gold is all it took to put the winning shine on Weian Zhao's PhD work.

Zhao won an honourable mention at the NSERC Innovation Challenge Awards recently for a report entitled “Biodetection kits using gold nanoparticle-coated paper.”

The Innovation Challenge Awards honours students who demonstrate an entrepreneurial spirit by proposing ways to transform their research thesis results into products and processes that will potentially benefit Canadians. The awards encourage real-world applications of student research.

Zhao's report lays out a compelling commercial case for the use of gold nanoparticle-coated paper to detect common pathogens, such as E. coli. The technology is based on research he performed for his doctoral thesis. Zhao, who completed his PhD in Chemistry and Biochemistry this summer, is now starting a post-doctoral fellowship at MIT, Harvard Medical School, and Brigham and Women's Hospital at Boston.

Zhao, and his thesis supervisors Michael Brook and Yingfu Li, are part of the SENTINEL Bioactive Paper Network, a McMaster based research network that brings together researchers from universities across Canada and paper industry researchers with the goal of developing bioactive paper that will detect, capture and deactivate water and airborne pathogens.

The sensors are based on an interesting property of gold nanoparticles. Particles that are clumped together on a piece of paper appear blue, but appear red when evenly distributed. Adding a molecule to the surface of the nanoparticles that changes their clumping/non-clumping state in the presence of a particular pathogen, creates a simple detector. Similar to pH paper, the sensors need only be dipped in a solution to test for the presence of the target pathogen. (A video of the process is available on the SENTINEL website.)

In his project, Zhao identified six advantages gold nanoparticle-coated paper had compared to current pathogen detection systems: simple to use, inexpensive, sensitive, stable, versatile, and easy to manufacture. While gold is expensive, the sensors use only a microscopic trace of the precious element. Zhao estimates that 1200 sensors could be made with less than $1 worth of gold and paper.

“It is a fabulous experience. It is fun to transform laboratory research into practical and useful products, and McMaster, the most innovative university in the country, provides students such opportunities. Also, there are many people behind this collaborative project. In particular, I want to thank the SENTINEL: Bioactive Paper Network and the McMaster Industry Liaison Office for their great support,” said Zhao.

Zhao spent this past summer working with the McMaster Industry Liaison Office in collaboration with the SENTINEL Network, to develop his work and other Sentinel technologies into commercial products.